Welcome back to Entrepreneur’s Enigma, the podcast where we dive into the heart of entrepreneurship—the trials, triumphs, and the lessons learned from adversity. I’m your host, Seth, and in today’s episode, we have the incredible journey of Zach Carlin. Once a small-town kid from rural Canada, Zach found his passion and discipline in the world of boxing, despite its taboo status in his community. This path of discipline led him to the bright lights of Las Vegas, the mecca for Ultimate Fighting Championship aspirants, where he trained among legends and learned some hard truths.

But Zach’s story doesn’t end with the highs and lows of an MMA career cut short by injury and bureaucracy. He reinvented himself in the world of entrepreneurship, coaching, and fitness—eventually co-founding Summit Chasers Network. Zach brings to the table critical insights into the path from fitness facility owner to recognized business coach, helping giants like HP and Salesforce address underlying issues in sales and company growth.

Stay with us as we unravel how a failed business due to COVID, a venture into online coaching, and an emphasis on hiring, SOPs, and consistent leadership have shaped Zach’s approach to scaling businesses and impacting lives.

Zach’s story is one of perseverance, adaptation, and the relentless pursuit of success—themes that any aspiring entrepreneur can relate to and learn from. So, buckle up for an inspirational ride from the rural rings of Canada to the entrepreneurial battlegrounds where the real fight happens. And remember—you can always reach out and connect with Zach through LinkedIn and soon through his revamped website. All links, as always, will be in the show notes. Let’s get started.

Key Moments

[04:48] Struggled with homelessness, found motivation in MMA.

[07:16] Accepting responsibility for failures accelerates personal growth.

[10:23] Learned Muay Thai, traveled, got addicted, skilled.

[14:07] CrossFit as a profitable fitness competition.

[18:37] Expanded performance center, grew sales to 20M.

[22:04] Starting a new business venture through partnership.

[23:17] Started with hiring, expanded to online coaching.

[27:58] Entrepreneurship allows solving important, passionate problems.

Find Zach Online

https://www.summitchasersnetwork.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/zach-carlin-799955228/

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Also, if you’re getting value from the show and want to buy me a coffee, go to the show notes to get the link to get me a coffee to keep me awake, while I work on bringing you more great episodes to your ears. →  https://gmwd.us/buy-me-a-coffee

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Transcript by CastMagic.io

Seth [00:00:00]:
Entrepreneur’s Enigma is a podcast for the ups and downs of entrepreneurship to the wins and the fails that we all face being entrepreneurs, how we learn from adversity. Every week I talk to a different entrepreneur with a story to tell. I’m Seth Goldstein. Come with me on the journey. This is Entrepreneurs Enigma. Let’s get started. Hey, everybody. It is your host once again, Seth with another of the Entrepreneur’s Enigma podcast.

Seth [00:00:37]:
Today, I have Zach Carlin. He is a former MMA fighter, more of a lover than a fighter, but, you know, at least now, he’s right. He’s not there’s no punching people in the head. He’s done retail. He’s from the Great White North, now living in Arkansas. He is the cofounder of Summit Chasers Network, which is a network to help people get better at business and life and everything in general pretty much. We’ll get into more what that means. But I don’t know where we I think we where do we meet? It was at on pod chaser? Pod No.

Zach [00:01:10]:
I think I think it was just I think it was just a good old good old LinkedIn.

Seth [00:01:15]:
Oh, it was LinkedIn. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. How he’s connected. And we’re like, oh, this guy’s interesting. So I was on his show recently.

Seth [00:01:20]:
Some of the Chasers Network podcast and now he’s on my show. So it’s a lot of fun. So Zach, how’s it going, buddy? How you doing?

Zach [00:01:29]:
I’m doing great, my friend. Thank you for having me. And we had a very good great conversation. And yours I’m gonna make sure that yours comes out kinda right around maybe within a week.

Seth [00:01:39]:
Oh, very cool.

Zach [00:01:40]:
This is

Seth [00:01:40]:
coming out this is kind of as of this recording, it’s mid March. Is this gonna come out the beginning of April? So that’s good. So we’re, you know, it’s coming out pretty quickly, which is good. You know, come out weekly. So, Zach, who the hell are you, and why do we care? How definite how

Zach [00:01:56]:
That’s per no. That’s great. I’m loving this, by the way, so far. I’m loving it by the way. Crap.

Seth [00:02:02]:
You know what I’m saying?

Zach [00:02:03]:
And it well, to answer the question why should you care? I mean, you know, that’s up to you whether you should or not. I I I

Seth [00:02:18]:
Great White North. Yeah.

Zach [00:02:19]:
Great White North on a on a farm, in a farm town. Wow. Not much special there.

Seth [00:02:26]:
I Lyle’s Ann.

Zach [00:02:27]:
Not allowed to. But 900. Yeah. The 900 people were in my in my town.

Seth [00:02:32]:
Do you have a skoplight?

Zach [00:02:34]:
We had we had the only it was the most annoying town in the province of Alberta because it was the only one that had a stoplight on the highway. So there’s like a main highway that goes north south.

Seth [00:02:44]:
That’s never smart. And and there’s there’s shows in in the US that are old, and they they could, like, close access close access close access. And all of a sudden, it’s like stoplight and you’re, ah, shoot.

Zach [00:02:55]:
Yep. We’re the only stoplight on the on the highway. But it’s great because little fun fact about Claresholm, which is a town I’m from. We had the busiest because of that stoplight, we had the 2nd busiest 711 in Canada.

Seth [00:03:06]:
Okay. So it

Zach [00:03:07]:
was one of the

Seth [00:03:08]:
oh, this is 711. Let’s go over there.

Zach [00:03:10]:
It had really good chicken. So, that’s kind of what that’s what we’re known for.

Seth [00:03:15]:
711 chicken?

Zach [00:03:16]:
Yeah, cows and 7 11 chicken. You know what more could you ask for, Seth? But, yeah, anyways I grew up there and I you know, the typical, you know, teenager rebellious stage. Mine went I took mine a little bit too far. And, ended up dabbling in drugs and alcohol and that kind of stuff and, ended up

Seth [00:03:36]:
What else do you do in the middle of nowhere in Canada?

Zach [00:03:38]:
You know? Well, because I didn’t it was kinda like you either played hockey or you did you did drugs. Right? And and we were on a there was a highway that went kind of around our town. It was on the other side. So we were right on the mountains. We were right on the Rocky Mountains. And then right on the other side of them Yeah. Yeah. Good job.

Zach [00:03:54]:
Right on the other side of them, there was a highway called the Crowsnest Pass and it was it was ran by a sector or district division, I guess, of the Hells Angels and

Seth [00:04:04]:
they Oh.

Zach [00:04:05]:
Meth was a big thing. Yeah. Meth was a big thing there because of all the oil fields and stuff that were there. So we had a

Seth [00:04:12]:
lot of money.

Zach [00:04:12]:
You need to be in your money.

Seth [00:04:13]:
You need to stay up late.

Zach [00:04:15]:
Yeah. Like a lot of the roughnecks. Because that you could you could be a 19 year old kid, 18, 19 year old kid right out of high school and go be a roughneck. It’s tough work, but you could make $20 an hour. And in 2006, 5,

Seth [00:04:26]:
6, 7 That was what I did. Now that’s the money. $40 an hour now. So

Zach [00:04:30]:
Exactly. So you so there there’s a lot of that’s how they stayed awake, and that was just what they spent their money on. Because they’re up in those camps, they don’t have to pay for lodging. They don’t have to pay for food. So they end up stacking a lot of cash, and what else are you gonna do? There’s nothing else to do. There’s a spare time too. Work.

Seth [00:04:44]:
I mean, you’re doing 12, 14 hour days of work. You have to stay up.

Zach [00:04:48]:
So that that was it was big around there. It was it was big around there. So I and I I filmed with the wrong crowd sort of thing and ended up not having anywhere to live for a short period of time. Oh, yeah. And that was kind of my my kick in the ass, I guess. And, before that I had, I’ve been doing mixed martial arts, but I had to travel to the city to do it. And it was kind of very taboo at the time. That was 2,005, 2,006.

Seth [00:05:10]:
Yeah. The whole the whole thing was, like, like, what is that?

Zach [00:05:12]:
It was it was cockfighting. It was human cockfighting at the time.

Seth [00:05:15]:
Right? Fighting for humans, which was even more peculiar. I remember 2006, it was, you know, UFC was just coming out and people were like, that’s brutal.

Zach [00:05:24]:
Yeah.

Seth [00:05:24]:
Now we’re like, we’re all desensitized. Now we don’t give a crap.

Zach [00:05:27]:
Yeah. Now it’s now I mean, now it’s still one of the fastest growing sports. But that wasn’t like chocolate l and, you know, he was he was on top and that kind of thing. But, yeah, it was still it was very, very taboo, especially in a small town where I was from. Right? It was either you played hockey or, you know, baseball or curling, whatever. Again Curling.

Seth [00:05:43]:
Yeah. Okay. So that’s one’s for I don’t understand. We’re gonna take a quick break, hear from our sponsors, and get right back to the show.

Zach [00:05:50]:
You you don’t need to. It’s like, it’s

Seth [00:05:52]:
like going too bad is cricket.

Zach [00:05:54]:
It’s really boring parts. Yeah. Cricket’s confusing. But, yes. And then so then anyways, I so I was still fighting and and then that’s what kind of got me out of it. I had a boxing coach. I had a boxing coach.

Seth [00:06:06]:
So getting punched in the head enough to get out of with the drugs.

Zach [00:06:09]:
Well, exactly. It was the discipline that came with it. Yeah.

Seth [00:06:12]:
Exactly.

Zach [00:06:12]:
Exactly. I mean It was the discipline that came with it. Right?

Seth [00:06:14]:
Not the punches in the head. No.

Zach [00:06:15]:
Exactly. And so the boxing coach, he he said there’s 2 things that he said. I mean, there’s only one that I really conceptualized and and, you know, saw as something. Oh, I took that for the rest of my life and I’ve been teaching it as I as I’ve been coaching for the last 15 years. And, he said, You need to take responsibility. Same thing our parents say, You know, take responsibility. It’s like, okay.

Seth [00:06:33]:
If you don’t listen to our parent, we don’t definitely listen to our parents.

Zach [00:06:36]:
No. Whatever, dude. Exactly. And then he but he said it in a way whereas, like, you need to take responsibility for your actions. Because if you get into that spot, you blame everybody else. Oh, yeah. We’ve all been in that spot. Right? Where things don’t go right.

Zach [00:06:46]:
It’s everybody else’s fault but So he’s like, No. You don’t just take responsibility for the obvious shit. Take responsibility for you have to intentionally take responsibility for even the littlest things. Because that way you’re just admitting that you have no control over anything in your life and you’re always gonna be at the mercy of some other force.

Seth [00:07:05]:
Mhmm.

Zach [00:07:06]:
Right? So then that that always it didn’t necessarily stick with me. The words didn’t stick with me, but that like, it was almost like a feeling. Yeah. You can’t keep going. You can’t

Seth [00:07:14]:
hit the chord that neither you hit.

Zach [00:07:16]:
Exactly. So and I and I took that with me. I could kind of when I look back in like times when you know, you’d fallen, you know, at bad times or, you know, I’d fail at a business or whatever it is. Right? I’d fail at something and I could always kind of attribute it to, I wasn’t intentionally taking responsibility for things. Therefore, I wasn’t growing in the right direction and I wasn’t growing fast enough. I’m improving or adjusting fast enough. So I always that always kind of again, subconsciously kind of stuck with me. And then he also said, the best thing because he he said, You need to get a job, man.

Zach [00:07:49]:
And I was like, I didn’t I barely had clothes to wear. I was like sleeping in the slide thing. And he’s like, Go get a job. I’m like, No one’s gonna hire me. He’s like, Dude, just focus on the next thing you got to do. Let’s go buy a shirt.

Seth [00:08:00]:
Yeah. Go buy a shirt.

Zach [00:08:00]:
Just go buy a shirt and don’t look at the the tip of the mountain. I don’t look don’t look at the summit right now.

Seth [00:08:06]:
Yeah, no pun intended. Exactly.

Zach [00:08:07]:
No pun intended, right? But just look at like, what’s the next thing you gotta do? Just go buy a shirt. So we went to we went to this bargain store. That was in town. And I bought Remember those like when smile those smiley faces were really popular?

Seth [00:08:20]:
Yeah. Life’s good. Yeah.

Zach [00:08:21]:
Brand. Yeah. So I got like this, like this red shirt, yellow, melty smiley face thing. And, I went and got breakfast. And then, a few weeks later, I got a job at swimming pool. But So it worked. But, I,

Seth [00:08:33]:
It was the start to getting yourself out of the bag?

Zach [00:08:35]:
It was the start. And it started allowing me to afford to be able to get to the gym more often. Because again, I had to travel an hour, to get there. And then I started that was I was 17, 18. And then by the time I turned 19, halfway through 19, I was starting to get a lot of traction. Like, I was obsessed again. I was obsessed with with this again.

Seth [00:08:54]:
And Good.

Zach [00:08:54]:
There’d be ups in Canada.

Seth [00:08:56]:
Did math, you know?

Zach [00:08:57]:
Well, yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, everyone has their thing. But, yeah, it’s much much much

Seth [00:09:01]:
better. But but it’s still a drug. I mean, dopamine’s a drug. I mean, dopamine, especially for kids, dopamine is a big thing. And if you can get you that high, the door it’s more endorphins. But then endorphins Yeah. After you work out really hard, that makes you wanna crave more and crave more. And then and but it’s better crave than the other crave.

Zach [00:09:21]:
And it was one of those sports where there’s so much to learn. Like and I I I respect boxing a lot. It’s a it’s a beautiful sport when you really understand the intricacies.

Seth [00:09:30]:
It’s a brutal. I don’t know. Right?

Zach [00:09:32]:
Yeah. Attention to it. Oh, for sure. But, like, there’s still there’s so many techniques. There’s there’s there’s an art to it. Right? Yeah. But it’s with with martial arts, it’s like, okay. I learned how to box.

Zach [00:09:43]:
I had to learn how to wrestle. I had to learn to do do jiu jitsu. I had to learn the defensive aspect of all these things. I learned, you know, Muay Thai and blah blah blah, all this kind of stuff. So there’s so much

Seth [00:09:51]:
to learn. And this is why it’s called mixed martial arts because it’s a little bit of this, a little bit of that, a little bit of this.

Zach [00:09:55]:
It’s a it’s a on brand. It’s everything. And you had to learn how everything could work together with your strengths. You had to learn how to leverage your strengths, mitigate your weaknesses, and improve them obviously. But there’s so much to learn. So, those dopamine hits just happen more frequent.

Seth [00:10:09]:
Yeah.

Zach [00:10:10]:
Because I could go take, you know, 4 classes in a day or 4 workout 4 sessions in a day and one would be jujitsu and I’d learned something new there. So I got a dopamine hit. I’d start I’d, you know, box would do sparring. Like, had a good sparring session. Got a dopamine hit there. Yeah.

Seth [00:10:23]:
I’d learn

Zach [00:10:23]:
a new I learned like a new technique in Muay Thai or trips and that kind of thing or plumb and that kind of so it was it was it was kind of it was fun like that. So I got I got really addicted to that. But anyways, I got pretty good in in Canada. In Southern Alberta, Canada, I got pretty good. And I was like, Hey, I got a sister that lives in Vegas. You know, let’s just go to Vegas. And that was like the mecca.

Seth [00:10:43]:
Yeah. It’s like the Hollywood for actors. Vegas is the is the mecca and still kind of mecca for UFC and stuff.

Zach [00:10:49]:
I would say it is. It is as far as, like, that’s where the fights are. That’s where the money is. That’s where the crowds are. And that’s where

Seth [00:10:55]:
the shine and glitz and glamour is.

Zach [00:10:57]:
Yeah. But at that time, that’s where all the gyms were. Oh, really? That’s where the best gyms were. So there’s really, there’s 2 or 3 within our continent. There’s some big, like, Chuto Box in Brazil was huge. It wasn’t about to go to Brazil. But we had the Tri Star gym in Canada and Montreal, Canada where George Saint Pierre trained.

Seth [00:11:16]:
Which is almost it was just farther than Vegas for you. So, you know Would

Zach [00:11:19]:
it would’ve been farther and would’ve been more expensive. I actually

Seth [00:11:21]:
And and you wouldn’t have gone along with the Quebecois that much. So, you know

Zach [00:11:24]:
No. Probably not.

Seth [00:11:25]:
You get more fights. No.

Zach [00:11:26]:
No. You’re from Alberta and then they would have just kicked my ass. And then but Vegas and then Vegas had extreme couture. So if anybody knows who Randy Couture was, he was huge in the sport Yeah. At at the time. And so I had a sister that lived in Vegas. I was like, Vegas is cool. So why not a recovering addict move to Vegas? That sounds like a good idea.

Zach [00:11:46]:
So I moved to Vegas. And, and again, I thought I was good in Southern Alberta. And I moved to Yeah. I was

Seth [00:11:52]:
gonna say it to you.

Zach [00:11:53]:
Alright. Well, there’s guys like the like, again, if if I’m saying names you don’t and anybody listening doesn’t know. I’m sorry to look them up, but, like, Forrest Griffin, Dieter Belfort, Randy Couture himself, Brock Lesnar when he was in the UFC, he was training out of there. Thiago Alves, Michael Chandler It

Seth [00:12:08]:
was good it was good influences there to see, like, these

Zach [00:12:11]:
are the Crazy.

Seth [00:12:12]:
Top of the top.

Zach [00:12:13]:
It was the top.

Seth [00:12:14]:
Right there. Like, literally, like like, you walk you walk around. Like, you go, like, in in Philly, you walk around and there’s Jason Kelsey singing Mhmm. In coach or in first class. So they’re singing in the in the not in the lounge, but in the with the common people. He’s just there. It’s like Yep. Ah, you know, they’re just over there lifting weights.

Seth [00:12:33]:
It’s like it’s like, what the

Zach [00:12:34]:
Yeah. And with with that, that top talent, you bring the top coaches. So the you got to learn. You gotta learn so much. It was just more readily available, obviously. So I got I got yet much much more. So I got I mean, I got my ass kicked. Like, that was really, like, ego check after ego check after ego check.

Zach [00:12:52]:
And that That was really where I learned like I I need to never like my glass is never 3 quarters full. Like I got to always keep my glass empty. Yeah. You’re working at it. To to a certain point. Right? Especially when I need to learn. I need to empty my glass immediately.

Seth [00:13:07]:
So how long were you in, you know, fighting for?

Zach [00:13:10]:
So then so I fought for about 3 ish, two and a half, 3 years. I had a confidence You were

Seth [00:13:15]:
smart enough to say my brain’s getting scrambled. Time to leave.

Zach [00:13:17]:
Well, Well, I got injured. I never really I didn’t I didn’t get hit that much. I was pretty good. Because I had the karate. I had a karate background. So I didn’t get hit too much. But I did get taken down. I got kicked a lot.

Zach [00:13:28]:
I got kicked because the range

Seth [00:13:29]:
You’re cutting on the left side because how that hurts the most. Yeah.

Zach [00:13:32]:
The range I kept it was I was in kicking range most of the time. Mhmm. So I got kicked. And that that hurts more than getting hit in the head. We talked about that. Watch that podcast if you wanna know what actually hurts and what doesn’t when you’re fighting. But Yeah. And then but I got injured.

Zach [00:13:46]:
I dislocated my hip. How? Wrestle wrestling practice and then I ended up getting kicked out of the country because the promotion I was fighting for was kinda helping me stay in the country. And then if I’m not fighting, they don’t care. Yeah. And that that promotion has not been around for probably 15 years now. Wow. 12 years now.

Seth [00:14:04]:
So what did you do? What did you end up doing? You’re going back to Canada? Yeah. I moved

Zach [00:14:07]:
back to Canada, and then I got into CrossFit, and just to try and stay in shape. And then I learned, Hey, you can compete in this and make up more money than I was making before. And so I worked out for, you know, a couple months and I did a local competition. I made 4 grand. I would make in a fight. I would make 1500 a show and if I wanted make an extra 1,000. So it’s $25100 for a 6 week 4 to 6 week.

Seth [00:14:29]:
And getting your ass kicked. Period. Or kicking someone off the ass. Yeah.

Zach [00:14:32]:
Yeah. Exactly. So well, I mean, even if you win, you’re getting your ass kicked. Unless you knock them out in the first or you finish them in the first 6 seconds, you’re still getting your ass kicked a little bit. Yeah. But so and I thought, oh, cool. I’m not I don’t have to get hit in the head. Cause at that point, fighting did what it needed to do for me.

Zach [00:14:46]:
It got me out of

Seth [00:14:47]:
And not senseless. It did taught me the It did taught me the not not in some sense India.

Zach [00:14:51]:
Exactly. And it so it didn’t taught me the discipline. It it I got out of it what I needed out of it. Yeah. And and then so yeah. And I just crossfit and then, I turned out I was pretty good at coaching at the time because I had in order to make money really while I was fighting, I was also doing, I was also training, like, strength and conditioning. I was coaching guys. I was really starting to learn learn how to coach.

Zach [00:15:11]:
So then I transitioned to CrossFit, started coaching a little bit just to kind of pay for my membership. And then they, I got approached by the gym owner. He’s like, Hey, man, we’re looking to kind of expand a little bit and grow. You know, we love to have somebody like you on the team. So I actually bought into that gym.

Seth [00:15:26]:
Wow.

Zach [00:15:26]:
So to become an owner, a part owner. And my naivety was very apparent when we had our first kind of meeting and we looked at like the P and L statements and that kind of stuff. Yeah. I was thinking, we got like 200 members, and Crossroads expensive. So, they’re paying, you know, 170, $200 a month. I’m like, fuck, we’re rolling in it. This is easy. Yeah.

Zach [00:15:44]:
I’m I am gonna take my, whatever, 20% and just gonna be Rock

Seth [00:15:49]:
and rolling. Yeah.

Zach [00:15:50]:
It was like it was like single digits, man. Man.

Seth [00:15:52]:
Like, it

Zach [00:15:52]:
was brutal. I was like, where where’s all the money go? Like, what what happens? It’s like, well, we have ads. We have, you know, the lease.

Seth [00:15:59]:
Ads up. Yeah.

Zach [00:16:00]:
Taxes. We have all these softwares and stuff that we have. We have like, there’s a lot going on. So I was like, okay. Well, how do we make the number go up? And I got so obsessed with making that number go up.

Seth [00:16:11]:
Mhmm.

Zach [00:16:12]:
And then

Seth [00:16:12]:
that’s the one that Yeah.

Zach [00:16:14]:
That was well, exactly. So I got so obsessed with that. So I when I was training, so at this point now I’m competing. Like they convinced me to like, you should compete in this. Yeah.

Seth [00:16:22]:
And I

Zach [00:16:22]:
was like, Okay, let’s do it. So I’m training 2 or 3 times a day, 6 days a week. So when I’m not training, I’m just like my coach is like, You just don’t do anything. Like just just Yeah. Either getting a massage, eating or you know, some sort of recovery. Sleep. How about it called sleep? Alright. Or sleep or sleeping.

Zach [00:16:40]:
Yeah. So, during that time when I was immobilizing myself, I was trying to learn. I was learning how to make that P and L statement go up. And I got, again, obsessed with that as well. And that’s Different

Seth [00:16:49]:
kind of dopamine hat. Yeah.

Zach [00:16:51]:
I learned Yeah, exactly. You know, you learn marketing, you learn, you know, fulfillment, you learn, strategic partnerships, you know, how to, sell. Sales and fitness is so hard. Very much. It’s great. It’s not hard. It’s just a really good foundation. Because you’re selling the possibility that they will achieve a goal if they do a ton of work and Mhmm.

Seth [00:17:12]:
And it has to keep you in the Yeah.

Zach [00:17:14]:
Yeah. So it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s a tough, it’s a tough sell, but I mean, if you have this, that’s your foundation. I still do this day. If you want to be really good at sales, that’s a great foundation to be really good at sales. But so I learned all these things and I started implementing them and getting more of our, you developing more of like a fulfillment process, more of a creating programs. How do I, you know, bundle things together? And then I started getting okay, let’s figure out how can I do it, you know, figure out a strategic partnership with them? So I’m learning how to negotiate

Seth [00:17:46]:
and That’s awesome. All this

Zach [00:17:47]:
kind of stuff.

Seth [00:17:47]:
And so it all leads to Summit Chasers.

Zach [00:17:49]:
Yeah. So well, that and that that was kind of the the, you know, the initial kind of spark that that got me obsessed more obsessed with business than anything else. And then that was, I mean, that was 11, 12, that was 11. What year is it? 24? It was 11. That was 11 years ago now. Yeah. So, and then I sold off my, equity there and, my shares there and moved on and bought into another one. Right?

Seth [00:18:14]:
Mine is kind of Did

Zach [00:18:15]:
the same thing there. Yeah. And then I flipped that one and we ended up doing for a CrossFit gym to do, you know, about 50,000 a month in profit. It’s really good.

Seth [00:18:23]:
Yeah. And I

Zach [00:18:24]:
was like, okay. I’m starting to get on to something here. So then I bought 2 more and then sold those off.

Seth [00:18:28]:
And I

Zach [00:18:28]:
bought another one, sold that off. So I did that with 6 gyms. And then I got I partnered with a company, who sold fitness equipment.

Seth [00:18:35]:
Ah, the next next horizon. Yeah.

Zach [00:18:37]:
So So that was the next Kind of the next thing. I was like, Okay, that’s cool. Because we wanted to open up a performance center that was, you know, we could show off our equipment and kind of be the Yeah. You know, the fun face of of it sort of thing. And so we did that and then So we scaled that quite a bit in a short period of time from 1 I think they were doing about 1,800,000 and then we started doing I think by the time I left, I made my exit. We were doing just a little over 20. So it was Well, he we had a mothership business that was also a logistics transportation company. So we Oh, you can

Seth [00:19:07]:
move your stuff around to

Zach [00:19:09]:
We immediately had a huge market opportunity. Like, we could go way wider. And then and I also had, at the time now that was 3, 4, was that 17? That was about 4 years later. And we I had like, I was on billboards in Canada for, Sport Chek. If anybody knows, it’s kind of like the Dick’s Sporting Goods of Canada, Sport Chek. And so, I had some like people knew me like I was

Seth [00:19:34]:
You’re the billboard guy.

Zach [00:19:36]:
Yeah. I competed I competed in like France, Brazil, Dubai, all over

Seth [00:19:40]:
Oh, all over. Yeah.

Zach [00:19:42]:
Yeah. So I I had a little bit of clout as the kids say these days. So that that helps a little bit. Right? I don’t know I don’t know if it helped much, but I mean there was a lot of thing. If we didn’t grow that much, it would have been weird. Okay. It would have been weird. We had so much set up in order to do so.

Zach [00:19:55]:
But then I made, I made an exit there. Wasn’t a pretty one either, but I made an exit there.

Seth [00:20:00]:
You made an exit. Yeah. An exit is an exit. You know. Yeah.

Zach [00:20:03]:
And we ended up moving back to Vegas. So my daughter was born. Yeah. Moved back to Vegas because that’s where my so my ex wife, she’s from Vegas. Okay. And her family was her family was there. So we moved back, you know, takes a village and

Seth [00:20:17]:
Oh, it definitely does. Mhmm.

Zach [00:20:18]:
Yeah. And then we so when we decided to, you know, I was getting my green card and all this kind of stuff and we decided, she was a nutritionist, dietitian. And I was like, Let’s just start our Let’s just start our own thing. So we started our own thing, and that was in 2,000 end of 2019.

Seth [00:20:33]:
Wow.

Zach [00:20:33]:
And we dumped a lot of money into building these. We wanted to do, like brick and mortar fitness facilities with an online presence.

Seth [00:20:41]:
Foreshadow. Foreshadow. Foreshadow.

Zach [00:20:43]:
COVID hit. Yeah. And I learned a very expensive lesson and we lost everything. Absolutely everything. And at the time we had our son was born. So we had a newborn while we’re going through all this.

Seth [00:20:55]:
Oh, no. And we

Zach [00:20:57]:
like, everything. Everything was gone. And I like I to the point like I had to get a job doing customer service for Netflix during COVID in our garage in Vegas in the summertime.

Seth [00:21:07]:
Oh, awful.

Zach [00:21:08]:
So I’m sitting there. I’m sitting in my underwear helping old ladies find the remote on I was like, I turned their Netflix on.

Seth [00:21:14]:
You hit rock bottom again. Yeah. You went up down. Yeah.

Zach [00:21:17]:
I was.

Seth [00:21:17]:
And you fell down to something. That

Zach [00:21:19]:
was the worst. That was much worse than anything else. That because I had people that relied on me so heavily. Yeah.

Seth [00:21:26]:
And you also knew where you’ve been, and it’s it’s not like you’re starting at the beginning where you haven’t been anywhere yet. Yeah. Now you’ve been places. And you’re like, oh, jeez.

Zach [00:21:33]:
Yeah. And I had, like, I had a 2 year old and a newborn and and a and a wife at 3 years

Seth [00:21:37]:
old. Get out of that?

Zach [00:21:40]:
Well, I mean, it helped having 2 kids during COVID because we got we got some checks. But it it was that was so like, I felt dirty taking it almost because I knew I had all these I had these skills. I had these these We have a lot

Seth [00:21:53]:
of skills you can’t do because COVID kind of kept locked down.

Zach [00:21:56]:
I couldn’t do it, but also I didn’t wanna take that as an excuse. I had to take responsibility for it. I was blaming COVID for not not

Seth [00:22:02]:
achieving Coach popped in your ear again saying

Zach [00:22:04]:
Exactly. So I knew I needed to I needed to figure out a way. A lot I mean, a lot of businesses were started during COVID. Yeah. Especially, especially, you know, online, e commerce, that kind of stuff. So I was like, Okay. Well, I’m gonna see if I can find somebody or find something that I can I can kind of partner with and I’m gonna I’m gonna go for it? And so I found, I found my old, my former partner and he used to do like keynote speaking. And, so he had a fairly good presence in business mind and that kind of stuff.

Zach [00:22:32]:
So, we ended up partnering. He had a gym in downtown Vegas and that’s kind of where it started. So we started Yeah. Or he had a gym that he started or he bought into, sorry. He bought me on because he wanted to expand his online presence, and I had built out an online fitness, team. So I was like, Yeah. Let’s let’s do it. You know, I’m on board.

Seth [00:22:51]:
And what do you have to lose? You’re in your underwear in your garage and fake stuff.

Zach [00:22:54]:
Exactly. I had nothing. I had nothing to lose. Absolutely nothing. So we we went all in on that and we ended up and again, it was a very small downtown Las Vegas. It’s about 1200 square foot 1400 square foot gym including the bathrooms. So it’s very small. And we ended up getting that to like, we were doing a 150,000 a month in a really small gym.

Seth [00:23:15]:
Wow.

Zach [00:23:15]:
Really small space.

Seth [00:23:16]:
There’s a demand.

Zach [00:23:17]:
And then, so we started kind of more we hired good people. That’s where I really kind of implemented my hiring process that we still I still now I kind of created the framework and improved it. Yeah. That’s what we teach with our clients now or something we implement with our clients now. But And then we started moving more to the online space, and we got a client in from California, and he was the owner of a bail bonds company. And I was like, cool. Because I was also doing some life coaching and we’re doing some leadership coaching in there as well. You know, everything’s encompassing, right? Health and work integration sort of thing.

Zach [00:23:53]:
And and then they were like, you know, a lot of the stuff because we did a lot of accountabilities. Like, a lot of the stuff would be great for our, like, our sales leaders. Mhmm. And we were like, Yeah, probably. Yeah, for sure. Like we just act, you know, just act like, Yeah, sure.

Seth [00:24:05]:
Sure. That’s right. That’s right. Yeah.

Zach [00:24:07]:
No, I totally agree. We’ve done this a 100 times before. And so they hired us to work with their sales leaders on sales leadership and accountability. And they ended up absolutely crushing it. They ended up increasing their revenue by about 11% when they were stagnant for the 3 years prior. And we kind of looked at each other and like, first of all, people will pay way more for this. Oh, yeah. Getting a 6 pack, that company as well.

Zach [00:24:30]:
And this is just so much more growth opportunity here. So we’re kind of like, all right, let’s go all in on it. So we shut down the fitness facility and went all in on executive, sales, sales leadership, mentoring and coaching and executive leadership coaching.

Seth [00:24:47]:
And that’s where some of it that’s where Sawant came from. Right? No.

Zach [00:24:49]:
That that was that was my prior agency.

Seth [00:24:51]:
Oh, wow. We’re not there yet.

Zach [00:24:52]:
Yeah. We’re not even we’re not even there yet. So and we started working with, like, Hewlett Packard when they acquired Serto. Like, they hired us and Salesforce, CarGurus, Farmers Insurance.

Seth [00:25:03]:
We are farmers.

Zach [00:25:06]:
Exactly. Farm Credit of Illinois. Like, it’s just very, broad. Yeah. Individuals that we worked with. But one thing that I I was starting to notice, like, we were more heavily on, like, the sales, sales account management, sales leadership and that kind of thing. But what I started to notice was that these companies are trying to solve for the symptom. Mhmm.

Zach [00:25:26]:
They think our revenue’s down. We haven’t grown in this amount of time. We’re inconsistent. It’s just our sales team. We need better sales.

Seth [00:25:34]:
It’s never just your sales. It’s never Josh.

Zach [00:25:37]:
Yeah. It’s never it. It’s a symptom. So I liken it to, you know, know, somebody came to me like I have a bad knee. It’s like, okay, that’s a symptom of something else that’s going on. What caused it? And a lot of times like their hip would be out of place or there something’s wrong with their foot. So their gaze different when they walk. It puts more pressure on their knee.

Zach [00:25:53]:
So I’m looking I’m seeing these companies. I’m like, we’re not even solving the actual problem. Right? So And again, being disagreements on that, all that kind of thing. And I wanted to do something to actually solve the problem. So, then I moved on and we started Summit Chasers where we work with small to medium sized businesses to build a business foundation that they can scale on. Because if you have

Seth [00:26:15]:
a To reach yourself. Yeah.

Zach [00:26:17]:
Yeah. If your if your sales are poor, a lot of times just did you hire the right people? Did you, do you have the SOPs documented so things are consistent? Are your leaders consistently working with your teams or is that how you teach them? Are you as the business owner yourself, are you continuing to grow? Because a business can’t grow past the founder itself. Yeah. You need you need to learn how to multiply yourself and bring on good people.

Seth [00:26:41]:
That’s tough. Right? That’s the toughest part is trying to multiply yourself, get the SOPs down, get the structure and the foundation together. Otherwise, you’re floundering at the top.

Zach [00:26:49]:
Exactly. You

Seth [00:26:50]:
know, even after some time, you’re on the way to the top, you’re floundering.

Zach [00:26:53]:
Yeah. Well, you just you’re gonna do this.

Seth [00:26:54]:
You’re falling down slightly

Zach [00:26:56]:
down. Eventually eventually, the the peak gets lower and you start doing that. So then that that’s where yeah. That’s where Summit Chaser started. I wanted to solve the actual problem. And I wanted to work with companies that were kind of like me a little bit where they didn’t they don’t have the MBAs. They don’t have, Yeah. You know, the mom and dad that had the business growing up, but they had a problem that they want to solve.

Zach [00:27:14]:
They had a life that they wanted to live, and they went for it. Right? Yeah. Using the skills that they currently have, but they need the foundations to build it off, like a rocket ship.

Seth [00:27:22]:
I love that.

Zach [00:27:23]:
Stuff for a rocket ship these days to just shoot out of the ocean sort of thing. Like, they need a solid platform. So that you know, that’s where Summit Chasers is.

Seth [00:27:30]:
There you go. So what is the best thing about being an entrepreneur? You’ve done it a bunch of times. You’ve had the ups. You’ve had the downs. I mean, underwear. Vegas. Summer. Netflix.

Seth [00:27:40]:
Yeah.

Zach [00:27:41]:
Yeah. The best thing about being an entrepreneur. I mean I mean, a lot of people will say it’s, you know, you have control of your own destiny and, you know, you you can work your analysis.

Seth [00:27:48]:
That’s true. You have for the most part, you have to be you don’t always have but that’s an enormous number because you don’t always have control.

Zach [00:27:54]:
Exactly. You you don’t.

Seth [00:27:55]:
Like COVID, you lost control. You had no control over COVID.

Zach [00:27:58]:
Yeah. I think the the best thing of being about being an entrepreneur is you can solve the problem that you’re most passionate about, that you can solve the problem that you see as most important. It’s easier to get it’s easier to work those. Yeah. Some people be like, oh, I quit a 40 hour job a week so I could start my business and work a 100 hours a week. But when you’re when you’re solving a problem, this is to your point too. You’ll those who are listening, you’ll see this in his podcast too. Like, you won’t you’re you’re more willing to do that or you’re more willing to do that.

Seth [00:28:25]:
Saying, you own it. It’s it it it bucks stops with you. Absolutely.

Zach [00:28:28]:
It’s yours. So I’m I’m I’m working with who I wanna work with. I’m solving the problems I feel most passionate about. And that’s is much easier to do that for a 100 hours a week than it is to do something I’m not passionate about, making somebody else a bunch of money. Absolutely. And live their life for 40 hours a week.

Seth [00:28:44]:
Absolutely.

Zach [00:28:44]:
So it’s it’s that’s probably the best thing.

Seth [00:28:48]:
Now on the flip side, what keeps you up at night besides your kids and your dog?

Zach [00:28:52]:
And the dogs. Yeah. Probably it’s one of those things. Like, I know what we do works. So how can I reach more people?

Seth [00:28:59]:
Yeah.

Zach [00:29:00]:
I know Make

Seth [00:29:01]:
more of an impact.

Zach [00:29:02]:
How can I make more of an impact? And how can I I think that’s the biggest thing? I just wanna make more because the people that we worked with, they’ve they’ve gotten amazing results. And the people that we talked to, they’re like, I wish I had this however long ago.

Seth [00:29:17]:
Yeah.

Zach [00:29:18]:
And but it’s like and it’s it’s it’s cool to hear. Like it’s nice. But then it’s like, okay, well, how do I how can I impact more? How can I impact more people? It’s not necessarily how can I improve my marketing or how can I do this? But it’s how can I package this in a way that I can help more? More people at once. Right? So that I think that’s probably the biggest thing, I guess. Yeah.

Seth [00:29:39]:
Yeah. And so what is the most important thing to carry with you all the time? Now that could be as woo woo as you wanna go.

Zach [00:29:45]:
So Most important thing to carry with me all the time. So I’m a big kind of proponent. Again, I have kids. I’m really protective.

Seth [00:29:54]:
Yeah.

Zach [00:29:54]:
Right? So is probably my, awareness. Yeah. Right? I’m trying I’m trying to keep it as aware with no knowledge. Neutral neutral as possible. Right? It is is especially as as as a man. Right? We do have an innate responsibility to be the protectors. Right? So it’s it’s that awareness part of it. And then just being being prepared.

Zach [00:30:17]:
Yeah. Right? For for anything. And like, I like, we’re we’re about to go travel travel the world. And I

Seth [00:30:22]:
Oh, boy.

Zach [00:30:22]:
What we bring with me is kinda I wanna bring rules with me that keep us safe.

Seth [00:30:26]:
Exactly. Traveling the world is not the same community every time. Yeah.

Zach [00:30:30]:
Yeah. And as as we’re traveling around, driving around in a trailer, we’re gonna be a little bit more exposed. So I need to bring with me certain rules and principles that keep us safe.

Seth [00:30:39]:
I love it. Yeah. Love it. So where can people find you online, Zach?

Zach [00:30:44]:
Oh, they can find me LinkedIn. I love I love LinkedIn. Yeah. I’m Zach Zach Garland on LinkedIn. We are rebuilding our website and our brand and all that kind of stuff right now. So that’ll come out in about 4 weeks. So but it for right now, if you wanna learn a little bit more, s e n get started.com or I mean, Facebook, Instagram, someone with Chasers Network and all those kind of things.

Seth [00:31:04]:
Yeah. We’ll put we’ll put the links in the show notes. So

Zach [00:31:07]:
Sounds good. Yeah.

Seth [00:31:08]:
Awesome, buddy. It was just so much fun. I’m so glad to get you on. I’m so glad to be on your podcast. So we’ll see everyone next time. That was a great show. If you’re enjoying Entrepreneur’s Enigma, please view us in the podcast directory of your choice. Every review helps other podcast listeners find our show.

Seth [00:31:24]:
If you’re looking for other podcasts in the marketing space, look no further than the marketing podcast network at marketing podcasts dotnet. Goldstein gee. I hope you have enjoyed this episode.